Flaws and Fetishes
by EJObsession
Summary: Edward can't stop noticing people's deepest insecurities; picking them apart like defective toys. In the meantime Bella can't focus on anything other than the itching in her fingers and the colors in her dreams. Old habits die hard.
1. Ch1 - Wet Sheets and Full Coolers

**Okay, this story has been rattling around in my head for months. I'm not used to writing ExB so be gentle. If this crashes and burns I'll delete it but it's worth a try I suppose.**

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 _ **Flaws and Fetishes**_

 _Chapter 1_ \- Wet sheets and full coolers

Edward stared at the boxes sitting on the other side of his new room. He'd already studied it for hours, memorizing the place that was to become his safe haven, his sanctuary. The empty bookshelves that spanned every inch of clear wall space, the folding door that led to a comically large bathroom and the huge floor to ceiling window on his left hand side felt like a ridiculous representation of the phrase 'more money than sense' and he almost rolled his eyes at himself – how many sixteen year olds lived like this?

He sighed and ran a hand down his face, pushing the open book on his chest onto his bedspread and uncrossing his legs. He sat up and stretched, a long shower was what he needed before he got everything ready for tomorrow and fell into an anxious, fitful sleep reserved only for the night before your first day at a new school.

He contemplated relieving his stress in the shower but just didn't have the energy. He rested his forehead against the bright white tiles and watched as water droplets flew off his top lip and hit the floor. When the water ran cold he reveled in the feeling of gooseflesh exploding on his body and flicked off the spray.

Alice had left him a pile of neatly folded clothes on his ottoman and he smiled to himself. He peeled back the comforter on his bed, ignored the irritating stickiness of naked wet skin on his sheets when he slid between them and hoped he'd get pneumonia from his wet hair as he slipped away to dream of dark eyes and honeysuckle, the way he had for as long as he remembered.

:::

The fireflies flashed around her and she closed her eyes, a small smile slid across her face and she leant back, careful not to tug on Emmett's dark curls as she settled down next to him. They each lay there, their feet hanging off opposite sides of the pier, ear to ear.

"B, I'm super tired. Can we go?"

"No. C'mon E, it's tradition, we lay on the pier on the last night of vacation until the fireflies go to bed. Then we spend the entire ride home irritable and exhausted."

"… Why do we do this?"

"I don't know, it's tradition. Granted, not a very good one, but tradition is tradition is tradition."

Emmett snorted at her and closed his own eyes, maybe he could get a little sleep without her noticing.

"Open your eyes, Emmett. I mean it."

Bella watched the willow boughs swaying above her and lamented the passing of time, she missed Jasper and Rose and the smell of honeysuckle but she adored this spot. The sound of waves lapping at the posts of the pier was so soothing, the sound of crickets and Hollywood frogs made her feel peaceful and nostalgic.

When the light around her swung from blue-grey into pink and then orange, she couldn't deny it any longer; they had to get up. They had a long drive home, and then just two days until the start of her junior year.

Emmett started loading all their bags into the truck without having to be asked. Charlie was fixing sandwiches in the kitchen of the cabin and the cooler sat by his feet, open and loaded with more food than they could possibly eat on the 9 hour drive home. Bella was struck, once again, by how well taken care of she was. She slid her arms around Charlie and pressed her face to his chest, feeling his prickly mustache as he pecked the crown of her head.

"Thank you Daddy."

"You're welcome Bells." He all but whispered. Charlie Swan was the kindest, most humble and sweet man Bella had ever known. He was quiet, calm and stoic but adored and protected his children with an unapologetic fierceness.

"Locked and loaded Dad. Shotgun." Came a booming voice from the doorway, too loud for their emotional moment.

Bella stamped her foot and flew out the door to the front seat of the truck, yanking the door open and trying to clamber in before she felt Emmett's ridiculously large arms close around her waist. She was too slow.

"I'm sorry, I am certain that I _just_ said the word shotgun." He chuckled as he pulled the back door open and threw Bella on the backseat unceremoniously before sliding into the front. "Seat belt. Now." He glared back at her as he clicked his own in place. Her habit of foregoing her seat belt disturbed Emmett and Charlie and was the most common cause of very rare family arguments.

She huffed, clicked her own seat belt into place and watched as Charlie and the cooler appeared in the doorway of the cabin. Charlie locked up and opened the truck's back door to push the cooler in alongside Bella.

They pulled away and Bella leaned against the window, watching her breath fog her view of the cabin intermittently before closing her eyes and resigning herself to sleep for at least a small part of the journey back home.

"Bye mama." She whispered to herself, but she felt Emmett's fingers reach back and squeeze hers as she succumbed to sleep.

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 _ **Review if you're intrigued. I'll pull it if it's no good.**_


	2. Ch2 - Kittens and Romantics

**Okay, chapter 2. Again - super nervous about this story so let me know what you think. Please.**

 **All mistakes are my own. Also - heads up, this story will change to M at some point, if you know what I mean.**

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 _ **Flaws and Fetishes**_

 _Chapter 2_ \- Kittens and Romantics

I swung the Volvo into an empty space and felt Alice's fingers grip mine over the center console. I tried to ease the frown off my face and turned to smile brightly at her.

"C'mon Sprite, let's get this over with." I turned the engine off and reached behind me for my bag, slid out of the car and swung it onto my shoulder, spinning to make sure Alice had gotten out before I pressed the button to lock the car doors. I couldn't imagine this sleepy little city was the height of criminal activity but you never know.

Walking across the parking lot was… an experience. Girls stared unabashedly and guys scowled, whether at me or Alice was unclear but there was no doubting it was aimed our way. The entire school felt like it was behind a grey filter, like a normal school only dipped in fog and rain. Every student had a scarf around their neck, a huge coat and a pair of hiking boots on their feet, like they were all prepared to wait out a storm and I briefly wondered if they'd ever been stranded at school before.

"Edward. I don't want to do this." Squeaked Alice beside me and I ran a hand through my hair; she was the whole reason we were here; the reason we had to do this! I squashed the flash of irritation down to my stomach and cleared my throat, speaking quietly, only to her.

"Guy to your right, spent way too long trying to get his parting in the right place this morning, didn't succeed. Girl dead ahead, concealer right on the tip of her nose is concealing sweet F.A. and girl to the right, glaring at me, I think: Her colored contact has slipped in her left eye. She looks like Mad-Eye Moody."

Alice's giggle lifted the tension from the air just as we reached Reception and I smiled happily to the little old lady on the other side of the plexi-glass. She looked like a child's drawing of a grandmother, with rigid grey curls all over her head and what looked like a homemade cardigan, a badly knitted homemade cardigan. She had lipstick on her front teeth and dirt under her fingernails, as though she'd just finished planting vegetables. I forced myself to stop analyzing her so I could speak.

"Edward and Alice Cullen. We need our schedules for the semester please?"

"Oh, hello dears! Is it your first day? I don't know the name Cullen, usually I know every student by name and face but you two are not on my radar. Let me see, let me see. E Cullen, Edward Masen, that's an interesting middle name son, you're in biology first with Dr. Banner." I grimaced at the woman's use of my middle name and her incessant chattering. I was going to ask her for a map, or just directions, when she started speaking again, somehow even faster than before. "I can't find an Alice Cullen, are you sure you're registered dear? I don't think I've missed anyone, you might have been mislaid with the boys' files but I'm sure I would've noticed just now if there was an Alice between the Alexs and the Andrews!" She chuckled at her own wit and Alice found the courage to speak up, thank God.

"I'm actually probably under M for Mary-Alice. But I much prefer Alice."

"M. M. M. M. Emm, emm-dee, emm, emmmmmmm, MARY! Mary-Alice Cullen. I'll load your details as Alice in the system dear, okay?" She winked conspiratorially and I warmed to her, just a little.

"Thank you, Mrs. Cope." I watched the older lady blush just a little and couldn't stop myself rolling my eyes at her. I know that I'm a charming young man, I am fully aware of my appearance and my voice and the atmosphere I carry with me according to Esme. But really? She's got to be at least 30 years my senior. _And has lipstick all over her teeth._

After I forced her to stop talking by pulling Alice away, perhaps a little rudely, I was on my way to Biology. I dropped Alice off at art on the way and found my classroom, practically running to an empty seat on the opposite wall from the door, a few rows back and next to the window, which was dirty and provided only a view of grey, wet, depressing trees. I was brought back to Biology by a clattering from the front of the room.

"Sorry Dr. Banner. I'm so sorry." A quiet voice practically whispered from the right as I watched a tiny brunette picking up the stack of textbooks that was now splayed out on the floor in front of Dr. Banner's desk.

"Bella." Dr. Banner sighed. "Just go to your desk. Stop it, you're in the doorway, c'mon Ms. Swan, off you trot."

Bella's face flushed and she nodded, barely standing up as she slipped the few strides to my desk and pulled her knees up to her chest, practically fetal, on the stool next to mine. I couldn't help it, a laugh burst from me.

She looked up at me then, her hair falling away and her eyes fierce, like a little brown kitten glaring up at a mountain lion. My smile flickered but I kept it there.

"What?" She hissed, still barely above a whisper. She'd be terrifying if she weren't so beautiful.

I gulped, staring into her eyes, all cognitive processes had left me. I couldn't think, I couldn't speak, I couldn't control the hand that slowly slid across the desk to her chin and swept away a tiny lock of hair that was stuck to the corner of her mouth.

"Mr. Cullen?" My eyes snapped away from the beautiful girl in front of me and met the very confused gaze of Dr. Banner as he looked between Bella and I. "Would you like to introduce yourself to the rest of the class?" He asked.

I ducked my head, whispering "not particularly" and grinned when I heard Bella's tiny, breathy giggle.

"Uhm, sure, if you like." I stood up then, addressing the rest of the room. "My name is Edward Cullen, I just moved here from Chicago, I have a younger sister and we live just outside the city, near the woods." I slammed back into my seat.

"Right then, short and sweet." Breathed Dr. Banner and I glared at the back of his head. "Okay Guys, I realize I have the misfortune of being your first lesson after summer vacation but unfortunately you will have to wait until lunch to catch up on the sordid details of each other's breaks." I turned to look at Bella but she'd created a curtain using her hair between us. I could smell honeysuckle and spearmint and it made me feel calm, grounded.

I zoned out and opened a fresh notebook in front of me, resigning myself to the fact that I wouldn't see her face again. New place, new notebook, old habits.

By the time lunch came around and I found Alice she was sitting on the steps to some side entrance to the school, she had tiny doodles on the back of each hand and her eye makeup had started to smudge. She was cradling her packed lunch and staring out at the woods that seemed to surround everything here.

"I saw the most beautiful man." She said dreamily. I rolled my eyes, briefly pausing to worry about how often I did that. "Don't roll your eyes at me. I mean it this time, he was just, oh Edward."

"What does this one look like?" I asked skeptically. Alice is a hopeless romantic, she has dreams and delusions of being swept off her feet; of someone falling so madly in love with her that they declare her their life and follow her around for the rest of their days like a tiny puppy or an imprinted duckling.

"Dark hair, dimples, biggest arms and thighs that you've ever seen. I've never known a person that absolutely huge. He's a senior." She smiled bashfully to herself and I sighed, leaning back on my elbows.

"Alice you're 15, don't you think maybe you're being a little unrealistic?" I wasn't trying to be cruel, she had spent too much of her time on chasing boys who were not worth the dirt on her shoes. It always ended with us curled up on the floor in my bedroom, her eating ice cream and talking about Cathy and Heathcliffe or Ariel and Eric. I didn't have the heart to tell her Eric only liked Ariel coz she was a fucking mute or that Heathcliffe and Cathy were just… fucked up.

"He's really sweet, Edward. I don't think he would care that I'm a freak."

"You're not a freak Alice."

"Okay" She whispered.

"Hey!" A voice boomed; I felt it all the way to my bones. "Alice, right? Do you wanna come sit with me and my sister? Oh, hey man, I didn't see you there, name's Emmett." I looked up to a hand the size of a dinner plate being pushed into my face, I shook it and noticed that his fingernails were bitten too short, almost to the skin underneath, he had callouses on his thumb and tiny little scars all over his skin. He was enormous, Alice wasn't kidding.

"Emmett hi! I would love to. This is my big brother Edward. Edward, this is Emmett. We were actually just talking about you."

"Good things I hope?" He grinned down at Alice and I saw the dimples she was so in love with.

"Alice doesn't know how to say bad things" I murmured and smiled up at him.

He chuckled politely but I would bet he hadn't heard me "well, come on in, it's gonna rain and there'll be plenty of room at our table." He winked at Alice and I groaned inwardly, scrunching my eyes up and dropping my head. I saw his wink for what it was: A nice guy trying to make a couple of new kids feel welcome. Alice saw it as only a lovesick girl would. She giggled.

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 ** _Please review._**


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